So...after finally expressing my genuine angst about a lack of structure to my time, days and life, I might just have found something to assuage it in the intervening period between coming home from camp and heading back up to Warwick.
Yesterday, mum and I met up with some of her old South African friends, who are over from their current home in Germany for a while. We went to another friend's concert (Beethoven and Mozart quintets, delicious!) and then took them to our local slice of eighteenth-century 'country' splendour - Kenwood House, once home to Lord Mansfield and his family, and set on a hill literally up the road from us in Hampstead. I love it - the house played a huge role in my childhood, thanks to primary school trips and summer holidays filled with concerts in the glorious grounds, even before I became an enthusiast of the era. During one such trip, our class was allowed to lie on the floor of the library and stare up at the ceiling - joy!
I hadn't been since they completed the renovation, though, so I was delighted to discover not only that they have restored all the lower rooms to their original Georgian glory (as designed by the celebrated Robert Adam) but that there is now a (surreptitiously installed) lift, which allows me to get upstairs! It also means I can at last properly contemplate the possibility of volunteering there, something I've considered for a while, and actually put my most recent degree to use. They're always on the hunt for new guides, and it would be absolute bliss to prattle on about my passion all day in a place so intimately connected with it (and with Dido Belle, one of the era's most fascinating characters) so I'm going to apply and offer my services for any of the next few holiday periods.
Georgian Christmas, anyone?
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